fishnerd

If I may add on... The yellowing compounds come from the breakdown of uric acid and other excreta of fishes plus left over food...you probably have overfed them...cut the feeding to alternate days and reduce the use of dried krill or frozen food...activated carbon works to absorb all colouring and odours, use good quality AC like Matrix Carbon from Seachem and it can last a couple of months, put it in a mesh bag, into the filter box to allow water to flow through...good AC actually hisses upon contact with water because of all the empty air space in the pores!

Well, if I may comment, the salt mix use can be both a matter of economical savings and habitual brand...I have used TM, Instant Ocean, CL and hW, really like hW quality...dissolves fast.... Was "enlightened" about salt mix by the owner of E*A*Place recently ...that there is a S-15 Report done on marine salt grading (www.aquacraft.net), apparently, all the usual brands scored badly <50/100 with CL at lowest 23/100... all except one brand, Marine Environment at 100/100....they sell it there, at quite an econmical price too....can read the article at the website above...interesting remarks.

Er..thought I saw a couple of Hi-fin black lawnmower blennies at E*A*Place at Siglap last night, you might want to check it out.

You have a point there about re-packing but the cost of the original cyclop-eeze is so high...and those fellows in Argent are not targetting the aquarium market here..too small perhaps? ....they have good products but don't sell to public, saw the frozen version at Aquarama and asked them but they just blurted "its reserved!" and waved me off... and the product is not like dog or cat food fed a can each meal, the same thing happens when you open each 50g can...as long as you keep it sealed and tight, shelf life should last for a couple of months.

Went there last night, saw lots of goodies, fire gobies, powder blues, herald's angel.. and lots of cute blue soldier crabs! Well, in case anyone still cannot figure out how to get there, the shophouse is just behind a Caltex Petrol Kiosk, along Frankel Avenue..owner claims to have the map on their website www.eaquarist.com

Hi there, well, worms can be creepy but they do help in getting rid of decomposing stuff like uneaten food or dead organisms....as long as not bristle worm, which not only eats fish and destroys corals, can also leave you in pain when those invisible splints get into your fingers...trust me I know Can try getting a hungry Boxer shrimp, mine always gets a worm or at least a part of it every night for supper. .... but if you find all the worms appearing suddenly one day, your LR is gone, dead... and should be removed.

Wow, thats a really nice Flame hawkfish or Neocirrihites armatus, I think one of the more expensive ones too... Hawkfishes have voracious appetites and feed on shrimps and small fish. I feed mine the freeze dried shrimps and they love it, will dash up to the surface to get it. Very smart and intelligent fish too, love those curious eyes.

Identification has always been tough, any taxonomist would agree...Well, if I'm allowed to comment, I think the first fish is really the female Chrysiptera taupou, or South Seas Devil..the one from Fiji, which I think can costs more then $15, is Starck's demoiselle, Chrysiptera starcki, rich dark blue and no yellow belly. The next photo posted should be the male blue devil, Chrysiptera cyanea with the orange tail.

Poor fish, hope it recovers...I've added StressCoat before to help fish heal...think it does work. Well, Can't be sure if I'm right but I think if there is a mantis running loose, it did the cutting. mantis shrimp are formidable predators and some species have sharp piercing front mandibles to catch and hold prey...Butterflyfish fell to attacks while sleeping in the rock crevices I think. Cuts at the sides occur normally with surgeons (hence their name) using the sharp scarpel near their caudal fins to slash each other. Butterflies have brush like teeth (spp. Chaetodons) and can bite off bits of fins or jab their enemies with their extended dorsal spines but not cuts like what you described.

Hi, I agree that nudibranchs can be difficult to keep without knowing their proper diet. Some marine animals need to have a specialised environment to keep and most importantly to observe them.....Dun't want them "lost" in the main tank right? Try putting them in a small tank by themselves, with sponges and some gorgonians, saw a set-up like this at E**A*qaristP*ace in Siglap. ...quite nice really

Hi everyone, white spot is indeed a headache for everyone. Well, the use of medication as a prohpylactic is encouraged but I suppose not in unmonitored quantities. Copper is effective against parasites like Ich (read somewhere that this term is only used for the freshwater species) but only when it develops into the swimming larvae stage. The visual white spots that you see is when the fish slime covers and protects the parasite against the effects of the chemical. And, coppersafe, sold as chelated copper is more safe to overdose but less effective. Other reef safe chemicals effective would probably be Malachite Green or 70% formaldehyde but still, prevention is better then cure. Freshwater dips, conducted in experiments by Martin Moe, showed 80-90% shedding of the parasite in water with pH raised to sea water's 8.3. effective time recommended is between 5-10 mins. I do it for all my new fish. Use a UV for 24 hrs, it helps to stop outbreaks, lower the salinity to 1.016 if keeping only fish. have a hospital tank with heater, helps to fasten the parasite cycle too or some change the lighting cycle, off for few days, apparently, parasite has photosynthetic ability. Forget the garlic, it clears internal parasites not really external. Use Oxycure to raise oxygen levels, fish die when parasite attacks gills. .. Future cure? a vaccine being developed now by NUS researchers or a parasite attracting block (read in Practical Fishkeeping)

Hi all, just to add my two cents worth, I have come across and used Cyclop-eeze two years ago at the previous Aquarama when they came... it is really an excellent product, in fact, it was rated a top product feed in a recent issue of FAMA. Cyclops constitute a major component of the growth food found in fish larvae and will actually be a natural feed. After the egg yolk gets used up, the larvae require large amounts of HUFA and other essential biochemicals to survive. The HUFA are actually long chains of hydrocarbons and contain no phosphates. Phosphates added to good quality food actually help the fish to grow as phosphates constitute an important part of each individual cell (as phospholipids of the plasma membrane and of course as part of DNA) Cyclops are readily accepted by shy fishes like anthias and fire gobies and for those into sea horses, their babies should grow on Cyclops-eeze....saw people from Tropical Marine Science Insitute ordering lots of cartons at the Aquarama fair recently. Excuse me for the longwindeness, fishnerd, can't help it...